A cooperative exploration of where we might take Jewish Education next

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

A Letter to Aly Raisman From an IDF Soldier

There is nothing I have to add to this very eloquent post from Olympic Gold Medalist Aly Reisman's Facebook page as reported by the Algeminer.

Below is a letter to Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman, the
American and Jewish gymnast who performed to the tune of Hava Nagila in
London, from an officer in the Israel Defense Forces. The letter was
posted by the author on Aly’s Facebook page.

Dear Aly,

I want to tell you about how you became the hero of a gym full of Israeli soldiers.

The same Israeli soldiers who have to deal with Iran’s nuclear threat
to the Jewish state. The same ones who serve two-to-three years of
their lives, because we have to; because there’s no one else that would
do it besides us, because our neighborhood sucks, and when the
leadership next door in Syria massacres their own people, there’s no
way we would let them lay hands on our kids, as foreign dictators have
done for thousands of years.

You picked a song for your floor routine in the Olympics that every
Jewish kid knows, whether their families came from the shtetls of
Eastern Europe, the Asian steppes of Azerbaijan, the mountains of
Morocco or the Kibbutzim of northern Israel. It’s that song that drew
almost everyone at the Israeli army base gym to the TV as soon as the
report about you came on the news this morning. After showing your floor
exercise to Hava Nagila, the announcer told about your gold medal with
unmasked pride, and of your decision to dedicate it to the Israeli
athletes who were killed in the Munich Olympics in 1972.

There were some tough people at that gym, Aly. Men and Women,
Battalion Commanders from Intelligence, Captains from the navy,
Lieutenants from the Armored Corps and more. You probably understand
that words like ‘bravery’ and ‘heroism’ carry a lot of weight coming
from them, as does a standing ovation (even from the people doing ab
exercises.) There was nothing apologetic about what you did. For so
long we’ve had to apologize for who we are: for how we dress, for our
beliefs, for the way we look. It seems like the International Olympic
Committee wanted to keep that tradition. Quiet, Jews. Keep your tragedy
on the sidelines. Don’t disturb our party.

They didn’t count on an 18 year-old girl in a leotard.

There wasn’t one person at the gym who didn’t know what it was like
to give back to our people, not one who didn’t know what happened to
the good people who died in 1972, not one who didn’t feel personally
insulted by their complete neglect in the London Olympics, the 40 year
anniversary of their deaths, and not one who didn’t connect with your
graceful tribute in their honor.

Thank you for standing up against an injustice that was done to our
people. As I was walking back to my machine at the gym, I caught one of
the officers give a long salute to your image on television. I think
that says it all.